One of my favourite
comedians, Robin Ince, was on the bill at The Stand and having recently
seen two of Robin's excellent Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless
People shows I didn't want to pass up the opportunity
to see him in a very different setting. The Stand was busy as is usually
the case on a Friday night and I managed to grab one of the last seats
in the house. First on to the stage was the compere for the evening, Bruce
Devlin. Now I've never seen Devlin before but
unfortunately I have to say I wasn't impressed. Now, I'm well aware that
part of a compere's role is to engage with the audience, but for me
there's really no need to do this by being mindlessly offensive...for a
whole 15 minutes! Add to that the extremely camp 'look at me, I'm gay
don't you know' persona and it's safe to say I will be avoiding this
comic in the future.
However, all was not lost. The first act on the bill was Irishman Jarlath
Regan. In contrast to Devlin, Regan was incredibly
likeable and entertained with tales of his newly-married life. There
weren't many belly-laughs to be had in Jarlath's material but plenty of
giggles and I would have been happy to sit through another 15 minutes.
After the first interval, and a mercifully brief introduction by Devlin,
Rick Molland was the next comedian on.
Molland's 10 minute set dealt with the relatively topical subject of the
BNP and despite agreeing with the point he was trying to make I felt he
was a bit heavy-handed in his delivery. Perhaps it because he was trying
to make his point in a short set, or because he was following the gentle
amiability of Regan, but I just didn't warm to Molland. However, I'm
usually a fan of political comedy and would be willing to give this
fella another shot.
The next act was Ro Campbell - an Australian
who has been living in Scotland for the last six years. Campbell is
clearly and experienced comedian and knew exactly where to pitch his
material for the Friday night crowd. With a mixture of local
observations and personal stories it was an enjoyable 20 minutes from
Ro. I particularly enjoyed his stories of the year he spent being
employed to hold the 'Golf Sale' sign on Princes Street - and if you've
ever been to Edinburgh you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!
Campbell wasn't breaking any new ground with his comedy but he was
providing plenty of laughs and that's what it's all about.
After another interval it was time for the man I'd come to see; Mr
Robin Ince, complete with brand new (but second-hand)
ubiquitous brown cardigan. I've seen Robin a few times recently but
Friday night in The Stand is a very different audience to a theatre full
of science nerds, and I was very interested to see what sort of material
we would get. I love Robin's shambolic, rambling style; it's like his
head is so full of ideas that he wants to get them all out at once.
He'll regularly start down one track then get distracted and head off on
a tangent, never quite making it back to his original point. On this
evening we were treated to insights into Robin's life with his two year
old son, the joys of charity shops, a bit of politics and finally,
despite saying he was steering clear of science for the evening, just a
little bit snuck in. As always, I thoroughly enjoyed Robin's set. I've
heard bits of it before but it's always great to try and work out where
he's going to go next. I don't know what you would make of Robin if you
had never seen him before and didn't know what to expect; the audience
seemed a bit baffled at times but mostly they came along for the ride
and I was definitely glad I hadn't missed the chance to catch Mr Ince
while he was in town.
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